Gesundheitliches Risiko durch Arbeitsstoffe : Modelle zur Hilfe bei der Abwägung von Ersatzlösungen nach 16 GefStoffV

16 of the German Ordinance for Hazardous Substances calls upon the employer to determine whether or not substances, preparations or products have a low health risk and can therefore be used. How such determination can be realised is not described. For small and medium-sized enterprises, in particular, it is difficult to decide whether a potential substitute is less hazardous than the substance to be replaced, because they are often unable to gather the necessary basic information. Comprehensible input on the basis of which decisions can be taken and risk assessments made are also an indispensable tool for large companies, professional association and supervising authorities. Concepts presently available for risk assessment are presented and their advantages and weaknesses discussed. The emphasis is put on the so-called relative risk figure, which is a a product of the factors potency of action, potency of emission and working process. As the potency of action and emission are purely substance-related characteristics, they can be indicated in safety data sheets and other data collections, so that the only task left for the user is to determine a process-specific factor from a table. The advantage of this approach consists in the fact that even substances can be considered for which no information is available. A simple formula helps calculate the relative risk of a preparation.